Cops: Man caught in undercover child sex sting

October 28, 2010

A North Side man who police said was caught in a sting has been charged with indecent solicitation of a child.

Eric Avila, 29, of the 3000 block of West Diversey Avenue, thought he was communicating in an Internet chat room with a 14-year-old girl when in reality he was soliciting sex from an undercover Cook County sheriff's investigator, Cook County Sheriff Tomas Dart said in a news release.

Avila appeared Tuesday in Maywood bond court, where his bail was set at $80,000 and he was ordered not to use the Internet and avoid contact with anyone under 18, police said.

The sheriff's child exploitation unit began investigating Avila after he made contact with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl in a Yahoo chat room. He chatted with "her" for a number of weeks during October, eventually asking if she was interested in sex and that age didn't matter. They also talked via cell phone, police said.

Officers set up a sting on Oct. 26. Avila told the undercover officer he would pick her up and take her to a hotel where they would have sex. When he pulled over to pick her up, they had a short conversation and vice officers arrested him.